The Adventures of Andrew Maurer

Another pancake breakfast today at Caroline’s Lodging. Though they only give one pancake per person, so Alex and I were keen on searching for second breakfast from street vendors as usual.

We spent the day going to the market, eating, and stocking up on food for the upcomming ~9-day trek. We compared prices for almonds, peanuts, raisons, etc. For example: peanuts – S1/100g ($0.33), almonds – S4/100g ($1.37), Brazil nuts – S2.5/100g ($0.90), cashews – S5/100g ($1.67). Next the cheese – 600g for each of us at S14/kg ($4.67) and the salami, hanging as tubes from the vendor’s ceiling at S25/kg ($8.33). We had lunch upstairs in the marketplace for S3.5 ($1.17) – soup, entree, and a pitcher of mystery beverage – what a steal!

Next step – Huascaran park office to get new climbing authorization, stopping for ice cream and baked sweets along the way. I remember the park guy mentioning before that climbing club membership allows authorization for climbing, but not trekking, so we said that we were planning to climb Alpamayo. Once allowed into the park we would have no intention of actually climbing Alpamayo.

Chinese for dinner, “Chifa”, route description verified, food packed, and ready for our last sleep before the trek.

We decided last night that we’d either go bouldering or mountain biking today. We woke up, had the rather skimpy hostel breakfast, and left by 8:30am or so. We got spinach and cheese quiche on the way, S1.50 ($0.50), and I got a bag of puffed corn, S0.50 ($0.17).

We went to the first outdoor adventure store we could find (possibly the most common type of store in Huaraz) and I rented climbing shoes for the day for S5 ($1.67). We then went to another place to rent a crash pad for S20 ($6.67) for the day. Once set, we headed off for Los Olivos, a bouldering place just outside Huaraz. It was about 30 minutes walk from Plaza de Armas.

There were great boulder problems and the rock had good holds. It’s a pourous type of rock with big jug holds. We also saw some sport routes bolted. We spent about two hours climbing, until I gave up since the skin on my fingers was getting torn up.

We headed to the upper floor in the mercado central and had the menu of the day for S4 ($1.33). Soup and a grape beverage along with fried trout for Alex and lomo soltado for me – very filling. Then Alex thought he was getting a glass of papaya juice for S4, but it ended up being a full litre. I had to help him with it. The juice is amazing here – always pure from the fruit with no added concentrate, sugar, or liquid. We had a glass of orange juice from the street yesterday for S1.50 ($0.50), freshly squeezed then and there.

We got back to the hostel, showered, and now I’m finishing up the blog. Dinner next. We’re planning to stay in Huaraz again tomorrow and perhaps leave for 7-10 days the day after to do either the Alpamayo Circuit or the Alpamayo Circuit combined with the Santa Cruz Trek.

I started the day by blogging and importing photos. It’s quite a pain trying to import photos from RAW into lightroom, export to jpeg, and then upload. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get a laptop here, but no plausible ideas yet. I considered buying one here, but a netbook that costs $250 in Canada costs $600 here. I figure it would be worth it to continue trying, since it would mean being able to add pictures to the blog with much greater ease.

We met up with Brad and Skyler, two VOCers at the Plaza de Armas at noon. Brad injured his foot last week while downclimbing on a mountain and was in crutches. It was interesting hearing about their experience in Huaraz so far. We went for lunch for S5/person ($1.67) and toured the Mercado Central. We then decided that we would head to some hotsprings outside of town. I was the only one who didn’t have a swimsuit, so I found a one-size-fits-all swimsuit on our way for S5 ($1.67). I tried and failed to find anything cheaper. The pair I purchased are blue with yellow racing stripes down the side.

The hotsprings are located about 30 minutes outside of Huaraz. Either S1 for the pool, S2 for a private pool, or S5 for the caves. We went with the private pool option. It ended up being a bathtub/pool just large enough for the four of us. There were faucets connected to big pipes which allowed the hot water in. It wasn’t natural in the slightest, but we had a good time talking about climbing and mountaineering, and going through the Huayhuash book that Brad had brought.

We went back to town in a taxi that we bargained down to the same price as a collectivo, S2.5/person ($0.90) We all had churros (S0.50) and then Skyler and Alex had patatas rellenas (S1), potatos stuffed with egg, vegetables, and meat, then deep fried. We parted ways with Brad and Skyler and then went to a chinese restaurant for dinner. They’re everywhere in Huaraz! I had chicken fried rice, S6 ($2) and Alex had chicken with vegetables, S8 ($2.67). We also had 650mL beers for S5 each ($1.67). The portions were massive and we left content.

We were both happy to be returning to Huaraz, though I was a little disappointed about having carried so much food over the six days and still having four days of food left over.

It snowed on us just as we were breaking camp, getting our things damp. We would have to dry them out when we got back to the hostel. It didn’t take too long getting back down to the main trail to Laguna 69. Within 10 minutes, we someone on the trail – Theo, one of the people who works at our hostel. He said that five people from the hostel were doing a hike to Laguna 69 and we could get a ride back with them in the van. We were back at the road by 11am and Theo said that we would probably have to wait until 3pm until the others had finished going up and down to the lake. We decided instead to try to hitch a ride back to Yungay and get the collectivo back to Huaraz.

Within a few minutes there was a truck driver who we flagged down. It turned out he was going to Huaraz and we agreed to pay S15 each ($5). It was an incredibely bumpy ride along the road back to Yungay for 2 hours, and then another hour to Huaraz.

I immediately took a shower, and it was amazing, not having showered in a week and done plenty of exercise. We then went out for a 4pm dinner – I had 1/2 chicken and Alex had 1/4 chicken at our usual spot, gallo rojo. We then got beers, headed back to the hostel, used the internet for a bit, and went to bed.

We set off around 2am. I wasn’t very optimistic about making the summit since the route hadn’t been well marked up to now and there were no other groups camped near us. Max, the guide, and his group were supposed to be attempting Yanapaccha today, but we had seen no sign of them.

We went about an hour until we hit the glacier, following rock cairns through the dark. Luckily the trail here was better than before. We got to the glacier, roped up, and began following the route from a picture we had photocopied from the guidebook. After a few hours on the glacier, we saw four headlights on the glacier far below us and headed up in a direction nearly 90 degrees off from where we were headed. I took out the GPS and saw that we were headed up an unlabelled summit, not the summit labelled NE Yanapaccha.

We decided to change route and follow the countour of the glacier across to the path where the other group was headed (and with a more direct bearing to Yanapaccha NE on the GPS). It was pretty dark out because the moon had already set and it was a bit tricky navigating the rather torn up/cravassy glacier. Eventually we intercepted the other group’s path and it turned out to be Max’s group.

We continued for a while, with me much more optimistic about making the summit. About 300m from the summit there was a very steep section. Max and his group chose one line, where Max went first, setting up a 60m rope for the others to follow. In that way, there would be no consequences if one of the clients fell because the rope would hold them.

Alex and I decided on another line, heading up to the same ridge, 30 m beside. I led and was very nervous because of how steep the slope was and because there was a small crevasse to cross at the beginning of the slope. I led up, placed a piece of protection 15m up, and then set up an anchor to belay Alex after 30m, at the end of the rope. Alex ascended and then I did the next pitch, this time being comfortable withour protection for the 30m. The snow wasn’t very good quality – somewhat crusty. We would have to kick hard through the crust with our crampons, otherwise the crust could break off and we could slip. I didn’t have great axe placements either, because it would slip through the snow when much force was put on it.

Eventually we made it up the three pitches to the summit ridge. We had seen Max’s group on the summit and they were now desceding back to the ridge. Alex and I were pretty scared about what we had just down and talked about retreating. Instead, we made a deal where we would make the summit of Yanapaccha, but then go back to Huaraz instead of continuing on to Chopicalqui. I swore to myself that I’d never climb again.

We passed Max’s group, and decided to go as fast as possible to the summit and back down. The weather looked like it might be beginning to sock in. We were roped up for this 20 minutes to the summit, but it wasn’t steep enough to need protection (though the ridge was exposed on either side). The last 10m to the summit has a huge relief. We were climbing up on hands and knees towards the summit, with a brilliant light right behind it because of the sun and the reflection off the fog around the summit.

It wasn’t long until we had to face our fears of going back down. Luckily there were a few fixed anchors that Max had left on the route they had ascended and descended. There was also a loose picket just lying on the summit ridge by the first anchor. I brought this with me as I rapelled, in case our ropes weren’t long enough to get to the next anchor (we tied each of our 30m ropes together to make 60m). Sure enough, when I rapelled to the end of the line, the next anchor was still 10m below me. Alex came down, I set up the picket that had been left on the summit ridge, and rapelled the next 10m to the final anchor. We were able to make it to the bottom after this.

It was another couple hours getting back to base camp. We took the more direct route (avoiding the mess-up we had made in the morning), but the glacier was much more broken up and we spent time navigating around cravasses. We eventually made it back to camp, thoroughly exhausted, by 12pm. I asked myself why I’d been scared, decided that it was irrational, and decided that I did actually want to climb again.

We had a long day of hiking today – 1.5 hours down from Pisco base camp to the valley and then 5-6 hours to Yanapaccha base camp. We met some Canadians down in the valley and I was happy to see that they weren’t being guided. It’s a whole difference experience when you have to carry all your weight on your back and set up/tent-to camp yourself as opposed to others doing it for you.

The first half of the trail to Yanapaccha base camp is on the highway-of-a-trail to Laguna 69. However, the second half was unmarked and went through alpine meadows filled with cows. We were very happy to finally arrive at a site marked by large cairns on a slab/rubble field giving way to cliffs below and with a view of the Huandoys, Pisco, Chocoraju, and Laguna 69.

We later found out that this was the old route up (we were using a 2003 version of the guidebook after all). We found out that the new route takes the road much higher from the valley bottom, with less hiking needed to access the glacier.

We went to bed later than wanted, around 7pm, ready to wake up at 1:30am the following day to climb Yanapaccha.

We meant to wake up at 1:30am, but slept through the alarm and woke up at 2:30am from the sounds of other groups. Granola bar and trail mix for a quick breakfast and we were off towards the flacier of Pisco. There were quite a few other groups setting off around the same time, so it was easy to follow the trail of headlights. At the glacier we roped up and readied our crampons and ice-axes and then set off towards Pisco.

It was beautiful getting up to the Pisco-Huandoy col still in the wee hours of the morning. The silhoutte of Pisco on one side, Huandoy the other, and endless starts in front and begind. The route wasn’t difficult, but Alex and I were both feeling exhausted from the altitude. There was one steep pitch of about 60 degrees, apparantly not there last year due to the changing nature of the glacier.

We were thrilled to arrive at the summit, about an hour after sunrise, and posed for some summit photos before descending back the way we had come. There were many groups still on the ascent, but it wasn’t hard to skirt around them.

We got back to moraine camp around 9:30am looking forward to taking  a nap. But when I got to our campsite I found it flooded with streams of runoff from the glacier. I immediately grabbed our thermarests, sleeping bags, and packs and threw them above the water line. Luckily the tent floor of the EV2 is quite waterproof and nothing got wet… until my sleeping bag blew off the rock it was perched on and into the muddy water.

We spent a long time packing up, tired from the morning’s adventure. We were thinking of hiking an hour or so in to Yanapaccha but decided instead to just hike back down to Pisco base camp. We stopped in at the refugio to collect our excess food. I was happy to see the same person to whom I had entrusted the bags the day before. The refugio was quite posh and inhabited by those who did not wish to sleep in tents.

Alex had a particularly bad night, not sleeping well and feeling sick from the altitude (or perhaps from our meals at rather unsanitary spots in Huaraz). But after some diamox and a few hours spent in the camp, we were off to moraine camp – three hours away.

Again, we weren’t particularly fast due to our heavy packs, but we were able to stash quite a bit of food in the refugio – a chalet-type building perched at the top of a hill by base camp. Pisco looked pretty impressive during the hike up to moraine camp, with great exposure from this side. The actual route isn’t nearly so exposed.

We chose a campsite, set up the tent and got to bed by 5pm. We would be waking up at 1:30am to climb to Pisco the following day. Most people start this early because the glacier is hard and easier to walk on with crampons. Later on in the day the snow softens up and each step takes more effort.

By the way from last time:
1 – When we were walking down from Laguna Churup and talking to the Ketchua lady, she was telling me about how many people of Huaraz work in the mountains as porters, cooks, and guides. I was happy to respond with “yo soy guida, soy portador, soy cocinador, soy escalador”.
2 – I was talking with an English speaking woman from Huaraz in the hostel about meals in Huaraz. Alex and I explained how we had been eating meals for S5 or S6 ($1.67-$2) daily. She was shocked and said that as a local she would never eat at such places – they are far too unhygenic. That brings me back to thinking about one night we went to dinner and were sketched out at first when no one else was eating there. Second, when the waiter said that they actually didn’t have most of the items on the menu. Third, when a dog sitting at the front of the restaurant walked back gingerly into the kitchen. And fourth when Alex scopped the top portion of his Jello dessert off because he thought there was mold on it.

We slept in until 7am because we had stayed up so late packing. I figure my pack weighed in at about 30kg as an underestimate (It was 23.5kg on the airplane, but I had added about half my 16kg of food, 1kg of water, less the tent pegs, poles, and the tarp.) The collectivo to Yungay was S5, and lasted from 8am-9:15am. It was a very impressive ride. I was sitting by the window and would exclaim Huascaran! to the old Peruvian man beside me when it came into view – two towering domes 6,900m high.

There were “collectivo taxis” waiting at the collectivo drop-off to take people to Cebollobampa (the trailhead for Pisco). The driver wanted S15 per person, but our book said that it should be S10. He eventually went and got an official collectivo rates document that indeed showed S15. He then said that we would have to wait for two more people, because collectivos wait until relatively full until departing. He said that we could pay the four passengers fairs: S15 x 4 = S60, but we declined. By 10am we bargained down to S50 since it was getting late and we didn’t know if anyone else would be heading to Cebollobampa. Just as we pulled out and drove around the carpark, the driver shouted “gringos!” Lo and behold, two apparent trekkers were waiting. They were headed to Pisco too, so it ended up being S15/person.

The taxi got us to Cebollobampa by 11:30am. We hiked a few hundred meters over the course of three hours until we reached base camp. Out packs were brutally heavy with ten days of food and we were both relieved upon arrival. We had been leap-frogging a group of three guided by a Peruvian named Max, the same guide who we’ve been bumping into a lot.

The camp was very pretty – a large meadow with up-sloping rock slopes on three sides and the view of the valley we had come from behind. From here we could see Pisco, Yanapaccha, and Chopicalqui – the three summits we plan to climb. There were maybe two or three groups apart from us (all guided) with over twenty animals – donkeys and horses. We also saw cows grazing in the meadow, presumably belonging to the posh refugio atop the rock slope beside us. It was unnerving seeing the cows, horses, and donkeys sharing the one water source to the whole meadow – a small spring.

Alex had a turkey freeze-dried meal and I had quinoa for dinner around 4:30pm. By 5:30pm we were tucked in in the tent, crashing after a strenuous day.

We had another 6am wakeup this morning. Our hotel person told us how to get to Pitec. Pretty soon we were on a collectivo destined for a settlement of farms called Lluna. The collectivo sat waiting for a while and we quickly jumped off to grab some fresh chicken empanadas for S1 ($0.33) each when a man walked by with a basket-full. When the collectivo seemed at capacity (about 12 people) we were off. Little did we know that many more people would be squeezing in.

Along the journey to Lluna we picked up 10 more passengers, bringing the total up to 22! It was unbelievable that so many people could fit. At one point a larger Ketchua lady sat on Alex’s lap. We had to squish with our legs not even close to straight in front of us until the lady was able to sit down on our bench beside us. To make matters even more interesting, we were on a gnarled dirt road the whole time and when we hit a rut Alex’s head would go hurling into the ceiling. We both lost circulation in our feet miles before we arrived at Lluna.

When we arrived, the driver said Pitec, and pointed up a a large trail/gnarled road too gnarly for a car. We understood that this was as far as we would get by collectivo and happily got out. We paid the driver S3 each ($1) and started up the trail. It was 1.5 hours walking up to the sign marking the entrance to Huascaran National Park. We passed traditionally dressed Ketchua ladies and a caballero walking a couple donkeys up the trail.

When we arrived at the park entrance, we knew that we would likely need to pay a park entrance fee. We heard from many sources that it would be S65 ($22) for 1 month, but the official wanted S5 for the day or S65 for 15 days. I was pretty outraged and spent a while complaining – showing him my Varsity Outdoor Club membership, since alpine club members are supposed to get a better deal. We later found out that without an alpine club membership, individuals are not allowed to go without a guide into some areas (most of the areas that we’ll be going).

It was 1.5 hours up to Llaguna Churup, with an elevation of 4450m. We were both feeling the altitude as we ascended – Alex’s breathing/heart rate and I had a small headache. We saw other tourists along the trail heading to the lake. We arrived at the lake at noon and took an hour siesta – laying out on a grassy patch beside the alpine lake, with a perfect sunny day. That’s what I call acclimatizing!

We headed back down all the way to Lluna and I talked with a Ketchua lady for 45 minutes or so from Pitec to Lluna. We then took off our boots to wait for a collectivo back to Huaraz. Soon a taxi came by with a couple British people and they got the taxi to stop and beckoned us in. They were from Redding and were in Huaraz for a couple weeks on vacation to do the Huayhuash circuit.

The driving in Peru really is crazy. Just walk into the street and you see cars passing each other with only centimeters to spare. Or in this case on this country road, passing big cows and other animals with hardly any margin for error. At one point when a flock of sheep was in the middle of the road, the taxi actually had to nudge a sheep with its front bumper before the sheep trotted off the road to let us by.

Back in Huaraz, we had a huge list of things to do. We have decided to not do the Santa Cruz Trek (we later found out that even alpine club members may not do the trek without a guide). This was in large part due to meeting a friendly guide a few times since our time in Huaraz (he was also on our Cruz Del Sur bus) and he said he was going into Llanganuco valley to do Pisco, Yanapacca, and Chopicalqui with his clients. He said that he would be flagging the routes and leaving the wands in. We figure that this could help with routefinding.

So we first went to the office of the Parque Nacional De Huascaran to see about permits. We were hoping to show our club memberships here and get the 1 month for S65 price. It turns out that the price got even worse. The women said that for climbers it would be S65 for 7 days. I was really frustrated and spent a lot of time arguing. I ended up talking to another more senior person downstairs. I explained that we were planning to be here for 3 months and that we were without a guide because we couldn’t afford it. How can we afford S65 every 7 days? I told him I wanted S65 for a month. He repeated what the woman told us that that was last year’s rate and it was different now. He had sympathy for us though and told us that he would give us last year’s price of S65/month. He gave us his name in case anyone gave us a hard time.

Then to dinner – something roja, which was really good. I asked for the menu and the man at the front said solo pollo. We sat down and I asked the waiter for 2 dinners. We soon each had a plate of a quarter chicken with fries and salad for 6S each ($2). What a deal! And this place was popular, so I had more faith in the food since there was high turnover.

While Alex headed to the supermarket to buy food, I began the arduous task of individually bagging 10 days worth of food. It’s 10:50pm at the moment and I still have to go finish packing. We have food for ten days and are hoping to climb Pisco, Yanapacca, and Chopicalqui. We have topo maps of the whole area, route descriptions, and gps tracks for Pisco and Chopicalqui.

Ps – I finally heard back from UBC law this evening and was accepted. I’m pretty happy. Though it doesn’t change my plan to do my master’s of economics at Queen’s.

Adios! Back in 10 days!